If you are looking for a quicker way to winnow away your piled-up stress, anxiety, and other unpleasant feelings, you've come to the right place!

Most people have an innate tendency to think logically and rationally and to behave thoughtfully, as long as  strong feelings  do not interfere. Whether emotional or physical (somatic), when they manifest, feelings tend to alter the state of mind, which can disrupt or even take control of thinking and decision-making processes.

This is how you can find yourself unwittingly ruminating on negative or absurd thoughts and end up being overwhelmed by these thoughts. So, you can easily slip into a vicious circle where your rebellious negative thoughts will trigger even more unpleasant feelings, which, if neglected, can alter your thoughtful line of thinking and decision-making, and end up taking control of your life, poisoning your existence, and pushing you to despair.

However, there is nothing wrong with experiencing intense emotions as long as your emotional responses are well-anchored in reality! According to contemporary conceptual conventions, the fearful feeling one experiences when facing a real danger that occurs in real-time, and as long as the induced reaction is proportional to the threat, is called "fear" or "acute stress" When fearful feelings are unreasonable, time-shifted (triggered by past events or future projections), disproportionate, or outright irrational, they are called stress, chronic stress, anxiety, phobias, traumatic stress, and many other academic concepts describing various negative emotional feelings*.

When they occur occasionally, trauma, stress, anxiety, or other negative emotions are neither normative concepts, nor disorders per se. These negative emotional feelings are personal experiences, and you are in the best position to define the boundaries of what is and what is not normal, appropriate, acceptable, or harmful in terms of experience per se. However, whatever the nature of your emotional reaction, when you perceive it as a negative, overwhelming, or lasting experience, it strongly indicates that you are dealing with more than stress as a regular, adaptive emotional response. It's time to do an online self-assessment and look for the best options available, or talk to your doctor.

Although academic definitions of trauma, stress, anxiety, and other emotions vary widely from a psychiatric, psychological, and naturopathic perspective, the common perception is that the above concepts describe states of mind due to unpleasant emotional feelings reflected by the brain's cognitive functions. Stress, anxiety, and emotional trauma do not reside in the intentionally and directly controllable areas of your brain - this is why you cannot just wish it away! When you feel emotionally hurt, what is hurt are most likely those non-cognitive aspects of your subconscious mind stored "within you" and managed by your limbic system - not by your rational brain! Your conscious mind senses, assesses, interprets, and integrates the traumas embedded within you as bodily feelings, and conceptualizes them as mental perceptions of your emotional feelings - commonly called emotions.

When you feel in danger, all your senses are exacerbated, time collapses, your energy soars, and in the blink of an eye, your subconscious will make the decision that gives you the best chance of survival. When danger seems real, the sympathetic nervous system produces a surge of adrenaline which leads to a boost of energy, which triggers the fight-or-flight survival response. When your fearful feelings are out of proportion or time-shifted (and the fight or flight response is not an option), the HPA axis is engaged and you are flooded with cortisol, resulting in an energy drain that causes the freeze-in-place response. Unhealthy emotional responses are very difficult to control by the rational mind alone because they arise from patterns stored in your subconscious mind and not from your intentional though.

The legitimate fear induced by real, real-time threats, known as "acute stress" is an innate emotional response that, through its ability to boost energy, is essential to survival and life fulfillment. However, persistent or intense stress and anxiety are negative, toxic, and energy-consuming feelings*. Whether you call a disproportionate or time-shifted emotional reaction trauma, stress, anxiety, anger, shame, grief, painful sadness, or any other name describing negative feelings*, they are toxic as long as they are intense, lasting, or overwhelming! Fatigue, sleeplessness, and pain are often some of their first fallouts, as toxic emotions drain energy and vitality. In the long run, the cumulative effect of stress and anxiety can wreak havoc on your mind and body.

Even though the experience of your fearful emotional feelings happens in the present, the stress is still related to past events, and the anxiety is associated with the anticipation of negative future outcomes. Since stress and anxiety are always time-shifted, most stress and anxiety coping strategies revolve around being grounded in the present. All these "anchoring" strategies aim to divert attention and maintain it for as long as possible on an intentionally created cognitive (mental) happy moment. Unfortunately, as soon as you finish your trick to dealing with stress and anxiety - whether it's practicing yoga, meditation, art therapy, pet therapy, physical training, jogging, fishing, hunting, or any other relaxing activity, you will start your descent back into your initial stressful and anxious state of mind.

I hope you have better things to do than seek temporary refuge from your toxic feelings*, because they always have a cumulative effect; they will pile up unless you find an effective way to relieve them. So your stress, anxiety, and other negative feelings* that build up during the day and don't go away overnight become your stress for the next morning, on which you will continue to build up new stress, and so on. Since your ability to cope with stress and anxiety is limited, unless you find an effective way avoid, relieve, or heal them, the accumulated stress and anxiety will most likely ruin your well-being and your health.

Because the nervous system modulates physiological functions and takes emotional state into account in all its actions, strong emotions always end up having an impact not only on mood and behavior but also on the proper functioning of the body and the etiopathogenesis of all kinds of pathologies. Repeated exposure to trauma, chronic stress, and anxiety can lead to various emotional problems, even psychiatric or somatic disorders. According to the American Psychosomatic Society “… there is no such thing as psychosomatic disease. All disease can be looked at from this point of view.”

The mind and body are deeply interconnected. When emotional outbursts persist, the entire system can adapt and affect well-being on multiple levels. The following manifestations can be triggered, aggravated, or even caused by, or can be pathologies for which your risk increases through exposure to emotional trauma or prolonged stress and anxiety:

Cognitive (mental) effects of prolonged emotional overwhelm

• Difficulty concentrating or focusing

• Chronic mental fatigue or “foggy brain”

• Recurring intrusive thoughts or memories

• Increased sensitivity to stimuli (light, sound, etc.)

• Disrupted perception of time (feeling sped up or slowed down)

• Tendency to “check out” or dissociate under pressure

• Often lost in your realm, overactive startle response

 Behavioural & Emotional Patterns

• Tendency to overwork, overachieve, or control as a form of safety

• Avoidance of conflict or emotional intimacy

• People-pleasing or collapsing boundaries

• Persistent guilt, shame, or unworthiness

• Emotional “numbness” alternating with overwhelm

• Hypervigilance in relationships or social settings

• Difficulty trusting others or letting people in

• Cycles of procrastination or freeze in response to tasks

 Relational and identity impacts

• Repeating unhealthy relational patterns

• Isolation or discomfort in groups

• Fear of visibility or being “seen”

• Loss of personal identity or voice

• Feeling like a burden, impostor, or outsider

• Internalized rumination (strong beliefs) about not being enough / being too much

 Musculoskeletal and movement-related effects

• Persistent muscle tension (especially in shoulders, neck, jaw, or lower back)

• Frequent muscle stiffness or tightness

• Reduced flexibility or body awareness

• Shallow or rigid posture (often unconsciously held)

• Chronic body pain without structural cause

• Unexplained spasms or twitches

• Trembling, weakness, or collapse under emotional strain

 Effects on the respiratory system

• Habitual shallow breathing or breath-holding

• Tightness in the chest

• Feeling out of breath even without exertion

• Breath that becomes fast, erratic, or difficult to control under stress

• Difficulty accessing full, relaxed breaths

Effects on the cardiovascular and circulatory system

• Irregular or racing heartbeat during emotional activation

• Cold hands and feet (due to circulation shifts)

• Tendency toward blood pressure fluctuations

• Heart “flutter” sensations or chest discomfort under stress

• Increased wear on the cardiovascular system over time

Immune and autoimmune effects

• Lower resilience to colds, flus, or infections

• Longer recovery time after illness

• Overactive immune sensitivity (e.g., allergies or inflammation)

• Immune system dysregulation possibly contributing to autoimmune tendencies

• Chronic low-grade inflammation

Reproductive and hormonal effects

• Disrupted menstrual cycles or PMS intensity

• Reduced libido or difficulty with sexual arousal

• Tension or discomfort in pelvic region

• Hormonal imbalances related to prolonged stress states

• Emotional stress responses that impact fertility or conception

• Delayed or early onset of reproductive transitions (e.g., early menopause)

Systemic, whole-body effects

• Sleep disturbances or fragmented sleep

• Chronic fatigue or depleted energy, regardless of sleep

• Appetite fluctuations or digestive discomfort

• Sensory overload or sensitivity (light, sound, touch, etc.)

• Episodes of overheating or feeling freezing cold (nervous system dysregulation)

• Cycles of burnout and brief recovery without full restoration

• Difficulty sustaining effort, attention, or emotional energy

This list highlights the adaptive intelligence of the mind and body: these responses are not necessarily failures, but coherent strategies developed to cope with emotionally intense situations.

One of the pillars of this approach is the fact that what has the power to fill or haunt your life is not the objective value, nor the cognitive memory of past events, but the perception of these past events. This perception has the power to arouse the associated emotional feelings. Perception occurs in the sensory system as physical manifestations that your brain translates into mental representations. It's like when you accidentally hurt your knee. What bothers you is neither the understanding nor the memory of the accident, but the pain and weakness that are causing you to limp. And it will bother you only to the extent and for as long as you limp, not for as long as you remember what happened!

When they manifest, you feel your emotions as physical sensations in your body. You experience them as heart palpitations, sweating, light-headedness, shortness of breath, knots in the stomach, chest pressure, body tightness, body aches, choking sensations, restlessness, or feeling of impending doom. You may feel flushed, tired, weak, dizzy, unreal, or out of control. If the causes of these feelings are not addressed timely, your feelings will gradually detach from the initial causal root and become a regular part of your daily life. You will work, sleep, and live with these feelings every day.

At this point, if you want to regain control over your life, you can invest yourself in a long process of re-educating your rational brain on better negotiating your decisions with your emotional brain or taking the Somatic Hypnotherapy shortcut, with quick results. Unlike conventional hypnotherapy approaches that focus on adding a fresh layer of positive emotions on top of your lasting fears and traumas, Somatic Hypnotherapy is all about releasing the past by rearranging the emotional reading of the past stressful or traumatic experiences. This therapy works with your world model and actively involves you in your change process so that changes are easily accepted and sustainable.

My approach is based on contemporary models of behavioral responses. From this updated perspective, when emotions arise, they cause a coordinated shift in your mental state, body, and physiology. Since these changes are always coherent, you can regulate an unpleasant emotion by regulating any of its manifestations. This explains how - despite the very complex nature of emotions - psychiatric treatments can control unwanted emotions by controlling brain physiology (through psychoactive drugs), psychological treatments by controlling the mental manifestations of emotions, while Somatic Hypnotherapy controls unwanted emotions by controlling their somatic manifestations (emotional feelings).

With my approach, you won't undergo a passive scripted therapy; instead, you'll be in charge of your therapy. Your overwhelming negative or painful emotions that you identify, quantify, and body map at the beginning of your therapy session will gradually cease following my therapy. Once you release the negative emotional feelings you piled up during your past experiences, you can change your perception of those experiences, which, in turn, will re-adjust your behavior. As soon as you no longer feel fearful, your once fearful thoughts and behavior will instantly change and follow your new emotional reality**.

Right after your session, you will feel as if your heart has significantly diminished - if not completely forgotten - the stressful, anxious, traumatic, or painful component of the unpleasant events we worked on - while your cognitive memory keeps intact the factual details. At the end of your therapy, you will be able to review the images and memories associated with your once unpleasant events, and you will be surprised to find that neither the images nor the thoughts can any longer arouse your once unpleasant feelings. Like magic, your once disturbing emotional experiences are nothing but distant, serene memories.** 

Forget the lump in your throat, your stomach knots, your muscle tension, your hesitant voice, your confused ideas when you speak in public, and many other things. As soon as the unpleasant bodily sensations associated with your negative emotions have uprooted, your anxiety, grief, stress, sorrow, jealousy, guilt, rage, or other negative emotions will be significantly eased, as if by magic! You will feel that something inside of you has already changed or is about to change as you have wished**.

Right after your therapy session, you will feel different. Somatic Hypnotherapy can help you think, feel and live the way you want by significantly alleviating the negative emotions that prevented you from thinking, feeling or living the way you wanted. Following your therapy, you will be able to think about whatever you want, and your thoughts will no longer have the power to awaken your formerly painful or unpleasant feelings**.

However, even if you feel free of your once unpleasant feelings at the end of your session, you will not start to act awkwardly or recklessly. Your personality won't change! You will keep your memories, instincts, and cognitive abilities intact. You will objectively assess situations and react appropriately. From now on, you can focus all your energy on living your life!

Free yourself from the burden that prevents you from revealing your talents, and allow yourself to be more charismatic and confident. Whatever the nature of your stress, anxiety, or any other emotional issue, don't let it ruin your life.

The "No Results - No Pay" principle guarantees my integrity and applies to all my therapies***.

Contact me and book your appointment today!

As stress and anxiety are most likely the leading cause of your issues, before filling in the appointment request, please self-assess your anxiety online and make an informed choice.

You can reach me by filling out the contact form below.

Disclaimer: The content of this page reflects the opinion of its author, is provided for educational and general informational purposes only, and does not constitute medical, psychological, or professional advice. I do not make any diagnoses according to recognized classifications (DSM-5, ICD-10) and I do not interfere in any way with ongoing treatments.

If you are already under medical care or treatment, follow their advice and treatment. I am not a doctor or licensed psychologist in Quebec; therefore, I cannot establish or continue a treatment based on your diagnosis. If you decide to consult me, be prepared to tell me what is bothering you and how you feel about it. 

For any medical emergency, call the Info-Santé service by dialing 8-1-1

*In Somatic Hypnotherapy, the terms "feelings" and "emotional feelings" are often used interchangeably and refer to sensory experiences perceived onto or within the body, assessed, interpreted, and integrated through interoception and conceptualized by the rational mind as "emotions." - which is consistent with their traditional, biological and medical meanings, but differs considerably from the meaning of the term 'feeling' in cognitive psychology, where it often converges and merges with the term 'emotion'.

**The results may vary from person to person.

***In other words, if at the end of your session you don't see any improvement in the issues addressed in therapy, I won't accept your money!

Somatic Hypnotherapy - 186 Sutton Pl, suite 104, Beaconsfield, Montréal, Qc, H9W5S3